When the Clock Strikes Twelve
by TealyBob
Summary: Klaus dies in Caroline's arms, right after hearing that she wanted to be with him. He left her in the middle of a war against the uprising of witches. But as she fights to stay alive and win against the witches that took Klaus from her, Klaus wakes up in the after world, able to watch over Caroline, but never speak to her again. Until...


**This is how I kind of want the big Klaroline scene to go. You know, the scene where we finally get some real emotions from both of them. I hope you like it! Please review because I love love _love_ getting reviews!**

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Until midnight, that's all the time Klaus had. He found the whole thing a tad too Cinderella-y, but he didn't reject it at all. Normally, he would have looked past it and lived his normal life until the clock struck twelve and then just died if it was really to happen, but this was different, because she was here. He couldn't die without getting his relief. Without getting the one thing he'd been craving for the past four months. That was no time at all for a vampire – four months – but to a vampire in love, it was eternity.

He knew he didn't stand a chance and that she would just spit in his face and kick him out of her window, but for some reason, he believed she would listen. And that was the only reason he was standing in her room now.

It was eleven o'clock. Why he'd taken so much time dawdling, he didn't know. He didn't even know if she would be home at that time. But he had an hour to live, and he would spend it waiting for her.

Luckily, the wait didn't go on for very much longer, because before eleven-ten, Caroline had entered her room. She shut her door and tossed her purse on the bed before she even realized Klaus was in her presence. She startled for a second, then almost instantly became angry with him.

"What are you doing here, Klaus?" she demanded.

"Must you be so aggressive, love?" he asked, not knowing how to approach her. But after a moment's thought, he decided coming straight out with his request would be best. "I came here for a favor," he said in a much less powerful voice.

Caroline scoffed. "A favor? Are you serious?" she demanded. She took her scarf off and threw it on the bed. "I'm not doing any of your deeds, Klaus."

"And I wouldn't be asking you to, typically, but under the circumstances, I was envisioning you'd be willing to abide me."

She took off a long necklace she'd had on and placed it on her vanity. "And what makes this any different than other circumstances?" she questioned him as she pulled off rings from her fingers.

Klaus took another moment to think of his answer again. Again, telling her the cold hard facts would be simplest, but the facts might also put her into a completely different mood. Knowing he was going to die, she would worry about everyone else's lives. But then he could just correct her, tell her that because he wasn't dying by stake, they would be fine, and see where things went from there… Caroline was now removing her jacket with a huff. Klaus spoke while she was moving, hoping to catch any hesitation or shock in her actions. "I will be dead by sunrise."

Indeed, she stopped moving, one arm out of her jacket and her hand holding the cuff, getting ready to shed it completely, but his words had brought her to a halt. Her eyes went from looking at the carpet to his. She held his bold yet soft gaze for a while, looking for a contrast between his eyes and his words. But there was none. He looked tired, and worried, and even a tad longing – not the appearance of a man who was using a woman he admired.

"You're lying," Caroline told him, hoping for his act to break.

Klaus looked down. "Unfortunately, I am not." He held his hands together in front of him, contemplating his thoughts. "At midnight, I'm a dead man."

"Midnight?" Caroline repeated. She finished pulling her jacket off and held it in front of her, draped over her arms. "What is this, some idiotic 'be home before the clock strikes twelve' thing?" she said in disapproval at him.

Klaus looked back up to her. "As it turns out, hybrids don't live forever."

"What does that mean? Because you're a hybrid you're going to die tonight?" she interrogated.

Klaus cocked an eyebrow in interest of her words. "Putting it simply, then yes…"

He seemed to lose his train of thought at the end of his sentence. His gaze trailed down to a spot on the floor behind Caroline. "So again, I've come here for a favor," he reminded, bringing up the previous subject. He cleared his throat and readjusted his hands, making himself more…less awkward.

"What could you possibly want that I can give you, Klaus?"

"All I ask from you," Klaus said, bowing his head forward to show her respect, "is a kiss."

"Oh, my God." She stuck her head forward with an offended look on her face. "A kiss!? God, you just don't stop until you're satisfied, do you?"

Klaus frowned at her. "Satisfied? Satisfactory has nothing to do with this, love."

Caroline laughed, clearly showing she thought he was full of it. "What is this, then? Forgiveness?" she mocked him.

Klaus took a step forward, needing to make his point. "Satisfactory would be you running into my arms and leaving this town with me without a hint of regret. You finally giving into me and loving me just as I do you." He nodded his head to the side, throwing that theory away. "But we both know that would never happen. So if I truly wanted to be satisfied, I would go kill my siblings so that they would die with me because they have no right to go on while I finally lay down in a grave."

Caroline listened to him against her will. The first part of his monologue had thrown her off, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. And she agreed with the second part completely. Knowing Klaus, he would be spending his last hours killing his family. But he wasn't. He was there with her.

"No," Klaus continued. "I won't be satisfied ever again in my life. I don't want to be. What I need now is what I'm here for…Relief."

Despite Caroline's touched feelings, she held strong on the outside, not wanting him to have any idea he was getting to her. She chuckled rudely. "How is coming to me and getting a kiss going to relieve you at all?"

Klaus took his time watching her before answering. He had only so much time left, he didn't want to ruin things now by answering her in a way that made his want for her repulsive. "Because you're the first woman I've craved for in nearly a thousand years." Her reaction stayed stern, but he saw a spark in her eyes, one that said she was slightly flattered. "I've forgotten what it's like to love, Caroline. For us Originals, feelings and senses aren't just heightened…but they become everything. Disliking someone instantly makes us feel like we have to kill them. Hate…that makes us feel we must destroy the world. Disappointment is like the world failing us. Sorrow makes us feel…there's nothing in the world left to smile about." He couldn't explain just exactly how he was affected by every little emotion, and he could only dream of sharing with her what it felt like. He took yet another step closer, knowing he was pushing his luck, but needing to be closer to her.

Caroline was going back and forth between looking at his eyes and his chest. "What does relief feel like, then?" she asked his chest.

"Like heaven showing light on me for as long as the pure relief lasts."

Caroline looked up to his eyes. "So if I kiss you, you'll get a glimpse of heaven?" she clarified. Klaus showed his confirmation in a single nod. Caroline narrowed her eyes slightly at him. "So what makes you so sure I'll give it to you?"

"I'm not," he admitted. "I came here praying you would show me mercy and forgiveness."

Caroline exhaled a disbelieved chuckle. "That is a shit-ton to forgive on a whim and in less than an hour," she informed him.

"But you're a kind soul," he reminded her, as if she wasn't aware. "That's one of the reasons I admire you. You can forgive and move on…something I was never able to achieve."

"Because you're a killer!" she cried, losing all compassion she'd had seconds ago. "In case you didn't know, I don't really have time for people that could rip my heart out at any second."

"You know I would never hurt you."

Caroline shook her head. "No, I don't," she said crossing her arms.

Klaus watched her for a few seconds, almost heartbroken. "Well that's unfortunate," he said, his hands hanging dead at his sides. "Because there's no possible way for me to prove it to you now…"

Caroline nodded, just to do something. "I guess that makes us a lost cause," she said in almost a whisper. "There's nothing left to do now."

Klaus took a deep breath. "Maybe I should go, then," he said, taking a few steps forward. He stopped when his shoulder was next to her. Caroline made it her goal to look at anything but him. "Again," he said gently, "thank you for your honesty," he whispered.

Caroline inhaled deeply, not liking the bad feeling in her gut. If Klaus noticed her uncomfortable stance with herself, he didn't say anything. He walked passed her, his chest rubbing on her arm as he went. Caroline grinded her teeth together as she heard him descending his stairs. She forced herself to roll her eyes at the entire situation. She turned and took the few clips out of her hair as she listened to Klaus opening her front door and walking out. She expected to hear a car engine start, but instead she heard his footsteps walking on cement. He was walking down the road.

Caroling sighed, nodding to herself. "Okay, he's dead," she told herself. "This is good," she tried to force herself to believe. "It was supposed to happen."

She took a deep breath as she turned and sat down on the end of her bed. She did an excellent job of directing her thoughts away from what was really bothering her, but only for a while. Klaus was going to die, there was no problem with that. But as Caroline looked up at herself in the mirror, she realized just how big of a lie that was. She looked down at her vanity table, her eyes falling onto a piece of paper she'd stared at for hours on end.

She felt herself becoming slightly angry. Klaus was leaving. After everything he put her through, after all the places he allowed her mind to wonder, he was just going to go and die now. How dare he? But the thing nagging Caroline was that she let him. She practically kicked him out. It was past eleven, meaning that she had less than an hour to complete her plans. But there was absolutely no way she could do her agenda with him in less than an hour. He'd failed her. She felt like she'd failed him.

Caroline growled as she forced herself to her feet, angry with the world. If she couldn't do _everything_, she could at least give herself some sort of closure. She quickly jogged through her house, reaching the door quickly. She threw it open and ran out onto the porch, looking around for Klaus. She saw his figure all the way down the road, slowly fading into the night. She abandoned the porch and ran after him. She didn't use her vampire speed, possibly because she wanted to stall incase her thoughts changed.

But as she got maybe five yards behind him, her thoughts were still the same. She was going to finish this entire thing. She stopped when she was fairly close to him, and that was when he finally decided to show attention.

He turned around to look at her as she took just two more steps and stopped. Her breathing was heavy and her face looked confused and slightly frightened. He watched her with a waiting expression, looking almost desperately hopeful. Caroline sighed. "You're really going to be dead?" she asked, looking for reassurance.

Klaus looked at his watch. "In forty minute's time," he said. He then shook his head and took the watch off hastily. "I really don't want that right now." He tossed it to the side, abandoning time.

Caroline didn't look at the watch as he threw it, or even when he was taking it off. She just watched his eyes, seeing the sadness in them. Her features slowly started to match his; sad and loneliness etched her face. She bit the inside of her lower lip, feeling her adrenalin picking up.

Klaus' eyes started at her feet, and slowly climbed back up to her face. He waited a few seconds, then raised his eyebrows. "Come to say your final words?" he asked, truly expecting her to insult him once and for all.

Caroline took three steps forward, eliminating the remaining space between them. She didn't touch him with her hands, but leaned up and closed her eyes as her lips barely touched his. She didn't know what she was expecting, but when Klaus sighed against her, she moved in, pressing her lips closer to his. It was amazing; somehow she felt the complete tranquility Klaus was experiencing. He opened his lips and closed them again gently over hers, moving his head down to hers.

He seemed to respect her request of not touching with hands, fore he was careful to not let his raised hands rest on her. That all changed, however, when Caroline got completely overwhelmed with the serenity she was feeling out of Klaus. Her hands came up slowly. Klaus felt her cold fingertips on his jaw, hesitant to cradle his face.

Caroline breathed deeply, feeling the moment. Her definition of "peace" was completely being changed. She felt completely at ease. Every worry and concern that had been on her mind was now totally gone. She now understood what people meant when they felt like time stood still.

Her fingers slid up his cheeks as her breathing got shallow. Klaus leaned down to her, pressing his lips to hers forcefully now. His hands rested on the outsides of her arms, barely touching her in case she snapped out of the feeling. But her thumbs were in front of his ears with her fingers curled around the back of his head, so Klaus figured he was safe. His hands slowly moved under her arms to hold her body closer to his, gradually pulling her in.

Caroline let her arms slowly move around his shoulders, and as Klaus started moving his hands all the way around her, a small smile pulled at the corners of her lips. Everything was perfect; Caroline had forgotten her worries for their relationship and was now in complete bliss in his arms, and Klaus was feeling like he'd never done anything wrong – like she'd never seen anything wrong in him.

But all of it changed, however, when Klaus suddenly got a striking pain in his chest. He winced and growled as he moved one of his hands from Caroline to his chest. When the kiss broke Caroline slowly came back to realization of what was going on. "What's wrong with you?" she asked, loosening her hold on him and looking down at where he was clutching his chest.

He tried to breathe through the pain. He looked up to her eyes and managed a hateful chuckle towards whatever it was that was killing him. "I'm to be dead tonight, love," he reminded her in shallow breaths.

Caroline's face was painted with a truly worried look on her face. Her hands were still on Klaus' shoulders as she stared in fear at him. "I know," she said quickly in a bit of an angry voice. "I know, I just…guess I didn't believe you," she admitted.

The pain in Klaus' chest ever so slowly started to fade, but not fast enough. He frowned at her. "You didn't believe me?" he repeated, frowning at her. Caroline looked up from his pained chest to his eyes, realizing what she'd just said. Klaus slowly started to smile despite his panting through pain. "You kissed me," he informed her.

Caroline closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration as she slowly slid her hands down from his shoulders. "Yes, I did. And I don't know why," she said, opening her eyes.

Klaus took deep breaths, swallowing the remaining fading pain. He took his arm from her slowly, trying to savor the moment. He looked at her troubled and slightly upset face. "I know you felt it," he said as he started to control his breathing.

"What?" she asked before she actually thought about his words. "Oh, the relief…" she answered her own question. She tilted her head to the side, not wanting to speak about that in fear she said something she didn't want him to know. "Yeah…yeah. I felt it," she agreed.

Klaus looked at her, and even though his face was hard, Caroline could feel his smirk. "And how did it feel?"

She licked her lips, thinking of how to answer. The man was going to be dead in a matter of minutes, might as well just speak her mind now. She sighed in irritation of her inability to hold strong against him at the moment. "It felt amazing," she confessed. She nodded, confirming it for herself. "It really did," she added.

Klaus looked down to the ground hesitantly. "You didn't believe me," he brought back up.

Caroline dropped her head back in irritation. "Yes, I didn't believe you, let's move on," she said with wide eyes and hand gestures to the left, indicating the 'moving on.'

Klaus looked back up at her. "Where to, love? There's nowhere to go from here." He held his arms open. "I'm _dying_," he said loudly, getting his point across.

"Yes!" she agreed just as loudly. "Yes, Klaus, you are. But what the hell am I supposed to do about it?" she whispered, being sassy to avoid an actual heart-to-heart.

Klaus dropped his arms to his side, looking at her like he was offended she didn't know. "Just…tell me the truth, for once," he instructed as if it were obvious. And to anyone that wasn't Caroline, it was obvious.

Caroline watched him for a few seconds, uneasy in her place. She brought her hands up slightly and then let them fall back in place. "What do you want to hear?"

Klaus clenched his jaw shut and took a step towards her, standing straight in front of her. "I want you to tell me everything," he demanded, and they both knew she knew exactly what he meat.

Caroline drew her lips into a thin line at him, showing her distaste of his request. She moved her face closer to his long enough to sneer, "Fine." She glared into his eyes for maybe five seconds before coming straight out with everything she had to say to him. "You want the truth? Here it is," she snapped. "I love Tyler," she said right off the bat. But then she frowned ever so slightly. "Or I used to. But I remember what it felt like – loving him. And what I hate is that it took me an entire year to get that far with Tyler. And you waltz in here and do it in one dance!" she hissed like it was disgusting. Klaus listened carefully, truly not having expected that much out of her already. "You're the devil on earth, but I'm still thinking about being in your arms all the damn time. I hate myself for this entire thing! I feel…emotions – signals come from you that are basically ten times as much affection as I've ever gotten out of anyone my entire life!" She took a deep breath and sneered at him. "But you're _Klaus_!" she hissed, shoving his shoulder.

Klaus stood still, not moving from the hit. She was admitting feelings that she'd been embarrassed about, yet she was revealing them in an angered way…

"But actually, I can look past the fact that you're one hundred percent evil. I can. Because I've realized that when you're around me, you're amazing. You're charming, loving, understanding…" She took a second to breathe and shrug. "So I don't care that you're Satan. I truly think that you'd change for me." She held his eyes for what seemed like forever, sending him the message that she did believe him; but also that she expected too much. …Or just enough.

Tears started coming to Caroline's eyes. Not because she was sad – although that may have been part of it – but simply because she hadn't felt so many emotions come boiling to the surface since she turned. She shook her head, getting ready to rant again. "But you know what _sucks_?" she growled. "Is that Tyler just left town. He ditched me, and skipped town!" Her voice wavered, and Klaus noticed her wet eyes. "Tyler was what I was holding onto. I thought if I stayed with him then my feelings for you would die and I'd stay with the good side. He was the reason I stayed away from you!" she yelled at him. "The _only_ goddamn reason!"

Klaus started to feel her anger and irritation and pure loathing for the world as he pieced together what she was saying. His own head started getting clouded over, and he felt broken in pieces of how unfair the world was.

A tear escaped Caroline eye, and it was so heavy it fell straight to the ground, only leaving a tiny wet trail behind on her face. She tilted her head to the side, completely in sorrow now. "You were going to show me the world…" she said in a quiet voice.

Klaus forced a smile onto his face. "You wouldn't have wanted to see it with me. I'd have spoiled everything," he said gently, trying to fix things.

Caroline shook her head. "You know things. You would know where to go. And I can't just go and see it all now," she said. Before Klaus could question why she couldn't, she continued. "I've already imagined going everywhere with you. If I go now with someone else… I'd be disappointed."

Klaus took a step closer to her. He admired her face. The face he was now discovering had wanted him as well all along. He reached up and stroked the side of her face. "You don't know me that well, Caroline. How do you know what our trip would have been like?"

Caroline brought her hand up and held his. "Because this," she said slowly. "Right now. Just being this close to you. I feel like nothing matters. I feel like all I want to do is be with you." She held his hand in both of hers, tracing her fingers over his nails and palm. She looked down at their hands, not being able to look into his eyes anymore. "I feel like you're my world."

She chuckled at herself. "But like you said, I don't even know you. So these feelings…I guess I don't know what they are, then."

Klaus took another tiny step towards her. "What did you think it was?"

"I didn't think, I knew what it was." She smiled at herself because she felt pathetic. She looked back up to his face and chuckled through her tears. "I loved you, Klaus. I loved the man I hardly even knew because he made me feel like _I_ was _his_ world. And I thought we were destined to be together."

Klaus nodded, wishing that her words could be true. "I'm sorry, love."

Caroline blinked away her tears, sending them down her face as she cleared her throat. "No. I'm sorry. I'm the one that wasted time."

Klaus knew what that sentence would lead to. She would blame herself for them not being together for the rest of her life. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "It wasn't meant to be, darling," he told her, willing for it to stick in her mind.

Caroline frowned at his chest, like she was in pain. "No," she mumbled. She lifted her eyes to his. "It was."

Klaus looked into her eyes, getting ready to compel her that it wasn't her fault, but he suddenly felt a giant jolt of pain start in his chest, working its way through his veins. He didn't let it show, though. He didn't want to scare her. He held it together, his knees shaking slightly against the pain. He didn't hide it well enough, though. Caroline's gaze slowly became worried again. "Klaus?" she asked.

The shaking in his knees worked its way up his body. He felt like his veins were burning, along with his chest. He held strong, fighting to stay on his feet.

But he could only fight death for so long.

Caroline grabbed his shoulders. "Klaus? No! Don't! Klaus!"

Klaus fell to the ground, despite Caroline holding him up. His vision was blurry, and he could barely make out the sight of Caroline dropping to her knees beside him. This was it. The end of his immortal life. The burning sensation ate away at his life as he tried to hold onto Caroline's hand.

He saw the outline of her body hovering over his, shaking him, and trying to bring him to. Black fog slowly took over the edges of his vision. He tried to focus on her face, but it was no use. Within seconds, his eyes had failed and he could no longer see his darling. But he could hear her. What they said was true – hearing was your last sense to go when you die.

"_Klaus! God, no! Please! You can't leave me now! Klaus! Come back. Please...…"_


End file.
